Old fashioned Christmas concert

My children now go to a public school, and that means no Christmas concert.  I’m guessing it has something to do with being politically correct.  I was thinking about this the other day and feeling sad.  I have fond memories of the annual Christmas concert when I was in school.

I grew up in a small rural community and because the school did not have a stage in our gym, the Christmas concert was held in the town hall.  There was much anticipation leading up to the concert.  Practicing at school every day or every other day.  The week of the concert was consumed with practices, finishing sets, getting costumes ready, and so on.  The Christmas concert was always on Thursday night.  We spent that entire day at the town hall, practicing and getting everything ready.  Then we’d go home, wolf down supper and head back into town for the concert.  The hall would be packed full.  It was like the whole community came out.  The kindergarden class would start the evening off with some sort of ‘welcome’.  Grades 1-4 sang Christmas songs and then the classes put on some plays.  The evening would end off with the arrival of Santa and the entire hall singing ‘Here Comes Santa Claus’.

The next day was the last day before Christmas holidays.  We didn’t do any school work on that day – some cleanup from the concert and watching a movie.  It was a lot of fun and a great way to kick off the holidays. 

I’m really saddened that they don’t have Christmas concerts like they did when I was small.  My kids were in a Catholic school until we moved and they had a concert every year, but it wasn’t like the concerts I grew up with.  The older grades put on a play with the younger grades filling in with songs in between the scenes. 

For me, I’ve always loved acting and every year I got to be in a play for the Christmas concert, which I loved.  Most years I played Mrs. Clause and my cousin was Santa Claus.  My two boys are quite dramatic and it would be nice to see them in plays.  Even though it was a small school with limited resources, I think I had more opportunity to be involved in singing and drama than my kids do.